The present invention relates to devices for displaying the day, month and year of the minimum age required for an individual to purchase alcohol or tobacco.
In many jurisdictions it is illegal to sell tobacco or alcohol products to individuals who have not attained a legal age. In most jurisdictions, the legal age to purchase alcohol is 21 and 18 for tobacco products. These minimum legal ages vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Sale to an under age individual can subject the vendor to fines and criminal penalties as well as civil liability. Because of the established legal minimum age requirement, store clerks and owners are required by law and often company policy to make sure, before any sale of such products, that the individual is of a legal age to purchase such products. Typically a store clerk will ask for the individual""s identification such as a driver""s license which shows the individual""s birthdate. The clerk must then add years (21 years for alcohol and 18 for tobacco) to the birthdate and compare the derived date with the current date to determine if the individual is old enough to purchase the product. Clerks can make errors or simply not do the math so as to implement a consistent purchaser carding policy.
There is accordingly a need for a device which automatically displays the minimum birthdate of an individual entitled to purchase alcohol or tobacco products for easy comparison by the clerk to the birthdate of the individual listed on their identification card.
There is, set forth according to the present invention, a device for determining the birthdate of an individual entitled to purchase alcohol products which includes a housing, a control circuit disposed in the housing and means for supplying electrical power to the control circuit. Means are provided for inputting into the control circuit the current time and date including day, month and year, the control circuit including timepiece means for maintaining internally the current time and date. These timepiece means are perpetual taking into account leap years and the differential days of the months. A display is controlled by the control circuit to display the current day and month. The control circuit also includes means for determining from the timepiece means the birth year of an individual entitled to purchase alcohol, the control circuit including means for displaying the birth year information at the display. Accordingly at the display is displayed the continuously updated birthdate of an individual of a minimum age entitled to purchase alcohol.
The device may also include the control circuit having means to determine from the timepiece means the birth year of an individual entitled to purchase tobacco products, the control circuit displaying the tobacco product birth year likewise at the display.
Accordingly, a store clerk having the individual""s identification card such as a driver""s license which shows the individual""s birthdate, need only compare the birthdate to the display date on the device. If the individual has a birthdate any time after the display date, the individual is not of legal age and cannot purchase the product.